Uniformes de la Guerre de Sept Ans1756–1763

John Mollo, Malcolm McGregor

La Guerre de Sept Ans (1756–1763) is the name given to the last great conflict involving all the major powers of Europe, except la Turquie, avant les Guerres de la Révolution française. Described as the first truly "world war" it was fought partly in Europe, where Frederick the Great’s Prusse, aided par la Grande-Bretagne, electoral Hanover, Hesse-Cassel et Brunswick challenged the combined might de l’Autriche, France, autres états Allemands et de la Russe. The global context of the war refers to the Quatrième Guerre intercoloniale, which broke out en Amérique du Nord between les Français et les Britanniques avant 1756, et the continuing hostilities of that period entre les Compagnies anglaise et française des Indes orientales. In fact, whereas the main belligerents aux Guerre de Sept Ans étaient l’Autriche et la Prusse, it is possible to regard the confrontation franco-britannique in Europe as well as the entry espagnole into the war et the consequent Portuguese involvement, as merely by-products of the colonial struggle.

John Mollo, the well-known expert on military dress, discusses the campaigns de la Guerre de Sept Ans et describes the uniforms et equipment worn in such famous battles as Rossbach, Leuthen, Minden, Kunersdorf et Warburg. In North America, Braddock’s defeat on the Monongahela en 1755 et Wolfe’s victory at Quebec en 1759 are given special emphasis.

Malcolm McGregor, the illustrator, is now widely recognised as an outstanding military artist et in this, his third Blandford uniform book, his magnificent colour paintings are again based on actual people of the period.

Malcolm McGregor’s illustrations are based on portraits of actual people of the period, like Frederick the Great, Major-General von Seydlitz, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick-Lüneburg, François-Xavier de Saxe, Maréchal Soubise, Lieutenant-General Francis de Chevert, General Laudon, Feld-Maréchal Prince Charles of Lorraine, Graf von Schaumburg-Lippe, Colonel George Washington, Major-General James Wolfe, Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, et Major-General the Marquis de Montcalm, among many others.

There is a list of uniform et facing colours of Reichsarmee infantry et cavalry regiments which serves as a good starting point for further research into the subject. Some of the entries are incomplete, et may be misleading, because they refer to converged regiments like Régiment de Cuirassiers Palatinat ou Régiment d’Infanterie Kurbayern avec different facing colours within the same formation.